There are so many “worsts” about the tragic auto accident in Longmont that resulted in a 27-year-old woman losing her unborn baby that it’s hard to know where to begin.

But we’ll start with the rap sheet of the accused, 52-year-old Gary Sheats. This is his sixth DUI charge, according to a story from the Longmont Times-Call. Sixth. The first one was in 1980, with the others scattered through the ensuing decades.

We can’t ignore his blood alcohol level, which was an astonishing .292, several times the legal limit. Another “worst.”

And he is accused of leaving the scene of the accident, which caused serious injury to pregnant Heather Surovik, who subsequently lost her baby boy and Surovik’s mother, a passenger in the car. How do you drive away from something like that? We suppose it’s possible that someone with a .292 BAC could be so drunk that he didn’t know he was involved in a wreck. Another “worst.”

The upcoming fall/winter season will mark 60 years that the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra has been making music for its dedicated fans.

Started in 1953 as the Mines Chamber Ensemble, the orchestra has become a community favorite. In 2011, it was named the Best Community Orchestra by Westword.

William Morse has been music director and principal conductor of the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra since 1999. The 2012-13 season includes a performance of “Carmina Burana” and participation of the Evergreen Choral.

Yet, given the state’s ongoing budget situation — which is, in a word, grim — is it such a bad idea? Would we rather try to get voters to approve some funding source, or pay higher user fees?

Those are the realistic choices these days because the status quo is not. Selling naming rights is common in other areas, such as publicly-owned sports venues. Even selling advertising space on public transit buses or school buses is not that big a stretch.

The thing that rankles me — and I suspect many people — about the idea of corporate sponsorship of state park facilities is that it’s such a divergence from the mission of a park. That’s where you go to get away from commercials and the trappings of civilization. Read more…

It’s no secret that one of the most important factors in determining who wins key races in November will be voters’ perceptions about the direction of the country. The 2010 Republican wave, for example, was fueled by widespread pessimism in the face of state and local budget crises and a slow economic recovery. One reason that 2012 figures to be a much closer election is that voters are much more conflicted about the direction of the country, and of their communities.

For example, in a statewide poll in May, Project New America gauged Colorado voters’ optimism about the future by asking whether they thought the country and the state were headed in the right direction.

Not surprisingly, a slight majority of Colorado voters joined most voters nationwide who are pessimistic about the direction of the country. In our poll, 52% of voters said they believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction, while just 37% believe the country s headed in the right direction.

What was interesting was how those results differed from the previous question, in which we asked voters whether they believed Colorado was headed in the right direction. A plurality (49%) of voters say Colorado is headed in the right direction, compared with just 28% who think the state is headed in the wrong direction.Read more…

One of the truly tragic stories of recent days is the accident in Longmont in which five-time DUI offender Gary Sheats allegedly struck another car and left a pregnant woman critically injured while killing her unborn child. Sheats had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.292, which of course is more than three times above the limit.

Yet Sheats is unlikely to be charged with vehicular homicide. As Pierrette J. Shields in the Longmont Times-Call explained, “Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said vehicular homicide could only be charged if the baby was born, then died of injuries suffered in the crash… Under Colorado law, an unborn baby is considered a fetus until birth, according to prosecutors.”

Yes, but since the baby was reportedly only a few days from birth, the rest of us don’t have to use words that suggest it was anything but fully human, do we? Gary Sheats’ father, for example, released a statement saying, “We are saddened about the death of the fetus and the injuries to those in the other car.”

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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